OnPolitics: Steve Bannon held in contempt of Congress
Happy Thursday, OnPolitics readers.
There’s a lot of focus on Steve Bannon this week, which we’ll explain.
But first …
The representatives are fighting: Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., traded barbs on Wednesday during a House Rules Committee meeting on a resolution recommending that the House hold former President Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon in contempt after he denied a congressional subpoena.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol voted earlier this week to hold Bannon in contempt. They approved a contempt report that is set to recommend charges against Bannon, who was in contact with Trump prior to the riot.
As the two lawmakers went back-and-forth, Raskin responded to Gaetz: “Blah, blah, blah.” Your members of Congress at work.
It’s Amy and Mabinty, with the day’s top news.
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could send a signal to other potential witnesses.
The full House voted 229-202 with all Democrats voting in favor and most Republicans voting against. House GOP leadership was urging members Wednesday to vote against the vote, but nine Republicans voted to hold Bannon in contempt. That included Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who both serve on the Jan. 6 committee.
days leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, which occurred as lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence gathered in a special session to formally count the Electoral College votes that established Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the messages the committee is trying to send is, first, “to him, that he has violated the law, and should be prosecuted for it.” Secondly, that “if other people are thinking about violating the law, they might know that they could be in the same spot,” she said.
Congress referred the case for prosecution.
But the attorney general, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, vowed to “apply the facts and law and make a decision consistent with the principles of prosecution” should the Trump adviser’s fate fall to the Justice Department. The case is likely to land in Garland’s lap as soon as this week.
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- Hackers targeting US drinking water supplies: The nation’s top civilian cybersecurity agency issued a warning Thursday about ongoing cyber threats to the U.S. drinking water supply, saying malicious hackers are targeting government water and wastewater treatment systems.
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The Biden administration’s top spies and scientists released the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on the global security threats posed by climate change on Thursday, concluding it will pose ever-greater challenges in the decades to come – and at a rate faster than previously expected due to political squabbling and inaction.
#LatinaEqualPayDay. Latina workers in 2020 earned an average of 57 cents for every dollar a white man made. Lea en español aquí. — Amy and Mabinty
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